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The numismatic collections and the museums in Bulgaria – past and present

The favourable geographic location of present-day Bulgarian territories situated on the cross-road between Asia Minor and Europe as well as the abundance of their natural resources are among the reasons for the 27 centuries-long circulation of coins varying in origin and value.About 1800 coin hoards and innumerable single coins have been found in Bulgaria. Some of them are stray finds, others come from regular archaeological excavations. The majority of these coins are kept in museums and fewer are kept in private collections.The coins found in present-day Bulgaria are extremely diverse in nature due to the rich and turbulent history of these territories, inhabited by Thracian tribes, Romans, Byzantines, Bulgarians and Ottomans.The hoards fall within a time span between the 6th century BC and the 19th century AD (the earliest ones being the electrum coins of Cyzicus and the latest ones – silver and gold coins of West European countries and the Ottoman sultans) and contain various number of coins – from only several to several hundreds pieces. The largest number of coins is recorded in the Devnya hoards (the ancient city of Marcianopolis), the first one comprising the 1st – 3rd century AD 60 000 denarii and the second one – more than 100 000 copper coins dated back to the 4th – 5th century AD. The 4th – 3rd century BC hoards containing tetradrachmas of the Macedon and Paeonian kings, the 1st – 3rd century AD Roman imperial denarii and provincial bronze coins as well as gold and silver coins of various European countries and the Ottoman Empire are among the hoards comprising the greatest number of coins.The coins of the

Thracian kings dated back to the 5th century BC – the 1st century AD, which are fewer in number compared to the coins dated back to the rest of the coins are of particular importance for the history of the Bulgarian territories because of the information they provide. The same can be said about the coins of the Mediaeval Bulgarian kings, the 13th – 14th century.

The historical processes in Bulgaria were impeded due to the tragic fate of the Mediaeval Bulgarian kingdom, which was conquered by the Ottomans at the end of the 14th century and became part of the Ottoman Empire for the next five centuries. The latter fact also affected the interest of the Bulgarians towards coins from earlier historical periods, an interest which starts as late as the 18th – 19th century during the Bulgarian National Revival period. The need to learn more about the Bulgarian Mediaeval coins arose among some of the better educated Bulgarians as part of their interest in the history of their homeland and a direct proof of the existence of the independent Mediaeval Bulgarian state. The coins of the Bulgarian Mediaeval kings were used as an impetus for awakening the national awareness at the time of the Ottoman dominance and as a form of patriotic propaganda among the Bulgarian population. It was the time when the monasteries made the first collections of antiquities and coins.

Several specific features characterize the interest of the Bulgarians[1] towards the ancient coins and thence the development of the numismatics in Bulgaria by:

1. While in the West European countries coin collecting preceded the establishment of the numismatics and created the conditions for its development in the 14th – 15th century in the 18th – 19th century it was the interest towards studying the coins and not the coin collecting that appeared in Bulgaria. This interest was provoked by the historical information about various aspects of the Bulgarian mediaeval history provided by these coins. They were used to provoke the national pride of the Bulgarians, who at that time were under the Ottoman yoke. The coin collecting in Bulgaria started as late as the early 20th century.
2. The recovery of the Bulgarian state in 1878 and the establishment of national museums in the largest Bulgarian cities like Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Shumen, etc., were immediately followed by the establishment of archaeological collections at these museums and the coins constituted an important part of the collections. The coin collection did not have any traditions at that time and for this reason the people who were occupied with it were mainly foreigners– diplomats, merchants, etc., who had special interest towards this type of artifacts and were acquainted with the numismatic wealth of Bulgaria. The first curators of the earliest Bulgarian coin collection at the National Museum in Sofia were also foreigners – the Italian Domenico Tacchella and the Czech Vaclav Dobruski. In the 1920-es and 1930-es many Bulgarians, who had lived abroad for a longer period, invested some of their money in the establishment of private collections of art works or archaeological artifacts, coins inclusively, when returning to Bulgaria.

After 1944 and during the socialist period in Bulgaria the private numismatic collections were forbidden and state museums were the only institutions permitted/allowed to have coin collections. This is one of the reasons why all 130 national, municipal and regional museums of history have numismatic collections, comprising from several hundreds to several thousands of coins. The most numerous collection is that of the earliest museum in Bulgaria – the National Archaeological Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – which at the moment comprises more than 200 000 coins, followed by the collections of the Archaeological Museums of Plovdiv and Varna. I have to point out with huge regret that currently there is not a single museum in Bulgaria hosting a special numismatic exposition. More than 25 years ago, on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the establishment of the Bulgarian state, a numismatic exposition presenting the numismatic collections donated to the museum by the citizen of Shumen Dr. Vassil Haralanov was exhibited in a special room at the Museum of History in Shumen (a town near which the first and the second Bulgarian capitals of Pliska and Preslav were situated). Later on with view to security issues the exposition was closed. Today

only the National Bank in Sofia hosts a special numismatic exposition. In the rest of the Bulgarian museums the numismatic artifacts are part of archaeological expositions related to certain historical periods.The problems related to the numismatic collections in the present-day museums vary from teaching and training of specialists, recording and cataloguing of the numismatic artifacts to their preservation and conservation.The general conclusion from all that has been said above is that Bulgaria is a country extremely rich in numismatic finds; however a great amount of work has to be done for the preservation, protection and promotion of the numismatic heritage to a broader circle of specialists and admirers.